Green ICT

ICT at 10% of Global Electricity Consumption?

The Digital Power Group said in August 2013 that global ICT consumes ~1,500 TWh of electricity annually, ~10% of the world's annual generation. This is the much greater that the 2% number commonly cited six years ago when Vertatique was launched. How did we get from there to here? And, is 10% a credible number?

This is not the first time I have seen the 10% number. It was cited in the promotion for a 2009 green communications conference in Germany. I've asked the source of both these 10% numbers for detailed breakdowns. Let's take a look at what we already know until we hear back.

The ICT Core is not just about data centers. It includes all e-gear intensive facilities in broadcast, research, medical and other sectors. Add those in and I am leaning toward the higher estimate.

Comm

The big change in thinking over the past six years is the "C" in ICT: voice and data, wired and wireless, broadcast, etc. Estimates vary.

Edge

We can't ignore the 19+ billion edge devices attached to our global ICT infrastructure. Some use relatively little power per unit (mobile phones) while some use much more (DTVs). Together, these billions of devices add up. There has been no comprehensive assessment of all this energy. We do have circumstantial evidence from which we can estimate its magnitude.

SWI/Vertatique Estimates of Annual Global ICT Electricity Consumption

Comms and Edge energy consumption is not as well studied as that for data centers. We do have an number of data points* that we have used to construct these estimates.

Low

High

Low

High

Core

1.1%

1.5%

165 TWh

225 TWh

Comms

1.5%

3.4%

225 TWh

510 TWh

Edge

1.4%

3.5%

215 TWh

518 TWh

Total

4.0%

8.4%

605 TWh

1,253 Twh

Pending new input from the global ICT community (see statement at top left) or the "10%" sources referenced above, we feel comfortable using 8%.